The Delian League, a historic alliance led by Athens, stands as an enduring symbol of collaboration against common threats in ancient Greece. Fast forward to the 21st century, we bring together the founding and affiliate members of the Net-Zero Export Credit Agencies Alliance (NZECA) to discuss the alliance's goals and shed light on how these institutions plan to deliver net-zero economies by 2050 by supporting the decarbonisation of trade and facilitating joint action from public and private finance. We explore the implications of these commitments for exporters, banks and ECAs, and the mechanisms by which members will publish emissions data and adhere to climate portfolio alignment methodologies.

Our hall is filled with heroes representing development finance institutions from every corner of the globe. Tasked with unlocking private capital to address the infrastructure gap and enable bankable project pipelines worldwide, they face key questions. How can we best mobilise large-scale private capital investment into climate, infrastructure, and development finance projects? How are innovative financing solutions, such as equity bridge financing and blended instruments, efforts to crowd in the private sector through syndications and guarantees, and promoting local currency lending playing out? How can we better aid in project preparation support and the implementation of acceptable ESG standards? What more can DFIs do to facilitate investment from institutional investors?

Please take a seat at one of our industry workshops held inside the temple dedicated to Hephaestus, the god of craftsmanship. Each industry has been selected based on levels of ECA-backed borrowing over the last 3 years from the Tag My Deals data. Join our tables hosted by gods, titans and heroes of industry, and roadmap the medium to long term outlook of the following industries:

- Table of Poseidon: Shipping

- Table of Pegasus: Aviation

- Table of Zeus: Power Transmission

- Table of Daedalus: Metals & Mining

- Table of Appollo: Health & social projects

- Table of Coeus: Manufacturing

The market has started to see a return of M&A transactions in a big way after a quiet H1 of 2023 and with this comes plenty of opportunities for investment and growth. Join our panellists as we discuss:

- What does the M&A market look like currently? Where are some of the biggest opportunities?

- The impact stabilising rates could have on the M&A market and opportunities for financings.

- Why are valuations in many cases lower than expected?

- What new or emerging debt products could reduce buyers’ dependence on the bank market?

We gather the leaders the development, export and agency finance world for a series of back-to-back interviews taking place on the main plenary over the course of the event. We delve deep into how they are structuring their organisations to respond to escalating climate change threats, accelerate energy transition, finance innovation and emerging technologies, and provide increased flexibility and accessibility to unlock more critical projects. How will agencies manage the required growth and the increasingly public role associated with their involvement in energy transition, energy security, economic development, and geopolitics, balancing stakeholders: government, industry, and the public?

We bring together agencies, public and private investors to discuss how we can best structure deals to allow capital to flow into critical infrastructure and ESG projects. How can we increase investor confidence in social projects, particularly in emerging markets? What more can the public sector do to help investors mobilise capital?

- What role can PPPs play in Infrastructure investment globally? What do PPP pipelines look like currently?

- With so many projects in the pipeline, how can we cope with the construction and supply chain bottle necks and the challenges these come with?

- Airports in particular seem to be a very active space for investment – what do the structures look like for these transactions? Is there an opportunity here for partnerships?

- What role is ESG playing in infrastructure projects now – how has ESG compliance impacted the thought process and timelines of projects?

We explore the intricacies of various methodologies for sustainable finance, delving into the challenges of standardization, while highlighting progress made by standards such as the LMA Green Loan Principles, Equator Principles, ICC whitepaper, and IFC performance standards. Could we consider proposing a carbon intensity metric for project evaluation? We look at the importance of balancing the complexity of ESG requirements with their impact on projects. How can we advocate for flexibility within standardized frameworks? How can we better address the need for clarity and accessibility in ESG guidelines to avoid hindering green deals in different markets?

We shine a light on the private market while it holds up the skies to support the public market. We look at how ECAs and DFIs are buying insurance and reinsurance designed to aid in the risk exposure and balance sheet optimisation, and conversely how DFIs are de-risking projects to unlock bank appetite and private market support. How have private market solutions helped to unlock capital and projects? Will we see a growth in portfolio insurance? We explore the possibilities of expanding risk-sharing mechanisms while addressing constraints on tenor and capacity in the private market.

This workshop presents the results of an academic research project between the University of Lausanne, ETH Zurich, and HEC Paris. We provide the first global quantification of energy finance flows by official export credit agencies (ECAs) using commercial transaction data from TXF. Our results are comparable to the E3F reporting and display the latest energy financing trends from 32 countries between 2013 and 2023. We find that while the share of renewables in global ECA energy commitments rose to 42% (guarantees) and 57% (direct lending) in 2023, ECAs remain heavily involved in the fossil fuel sector, with support varying substantially across technologies, value chain stages, and countries. Finally, in our paper, we call for reconsidering domestic ECA mandates and strengthening international climate-related cooperation in export finance, including with non-OECD countries. *Invite only session

As storage projects gain momentum and are proving themselves to be a pivotal pillar of portfolios, we will unite our panellists to discuss the current state and future trajectory of this dynamic asset class covering key points such as:

- How are solar business models evolving in different markets? Is a merchant generation-like model dominating? Or will eventually batteries need to be paid for reliability services.

- What does the pipeline for storage assets look like globally, is there more of a push for co-located or standalone projects and does this affect financing at all?

- What does the PPA market look like for storage assets? How have terms in solar-plus- storage evolved?

- What impact the growing battery sector has on other markets such as critical minerals mining, and more generally, how secure and competitive are supply chains.

Following the new European Commission elections in May 2024, we convene to explore what we can anticipate from the EU Export Credit Strategy with key bankers, exporters, ECAs and DG Trade lending to the debate.

As both industry and government increasingly emphasise the creation of a greener and more equitable global society, the mandates of ECAs and DFIs have become more aligned towards ESG projects and realising the UN SDGs. Consequently, we observe an enhanced convergence and collaboration between ECAs, DFIs, and the private sector. We bring together agency leaders to assess whether we are doing enough to pool our resources to address the infrastructure funding gap in developing nations and finance the global energy transition. We ask how increased cooperation between ECAs & DFIs has helped finance big-ticket projects? With the IFC performance standards serving as a useful tool for assessing investment criteria, can we learn from this to create standardised arrangements for presenting loan packages and ECAs? How can we further foster this harmonious relationship to bring more projects over the line?

Taking inspiration from the gatherings of ancient Greek philosophers, who convened in privacy to discuss pressing matters of their time, we extend an exclusive invitation for you to participate in this closed-door roundtable with fellow borrowers, discussing your balance sheet requirements, project pipelines, the effectiveness of the ECA product, and sharing valuable structuring insights. The session will adhere to strict Chatham House rules.

Fibre deals particularly across Europe are continuing to reach close at a steady rate, and we are at an interesting point with the asset class where the questions over what is next are starting to be raised, join our panellists as we discuss:

- The impact of overbuild and competition on the Fibre market

- As we enter the ‘second wave of fibre’ we are seeing a lot of refinancings, what do these structures look like?

- Does the outlook for fibre investment differ when we break it down regionally across the globe?

- What are the prospects for consolidation in global fibre markets?

Please take your seats and witness the re-enactment of the most famous battle in the ancient world, now unfolding on the modern stage. Today the gods present new challenges in the form of heightened geopolitical uncertainty, sluggish economic growth, both new and ongoing conflicts, climate risks, energy security concerns, and deglobalization. How will our heroes employ the tools of export and agency finance to confront these challenges and lead their institutions to newfound glories? The audience votes to decide if the Greeks will once again triumph, or the Trojans stage an epic comeback?

Whilst there is a forecast for interest rates to fall, the current high interest rate environment continues. With many projects needing to be completed, how can we navigate these choppy waters?  Join our panelists as we discuss:

- How can utilizing hedging tools help with driving projects towards financial close?

- The impact of rising rates and inflationary pressure on asset returns.

- Discuss Alternative debt distribution methods, and alternative methods for de- risking both projects and bank’s debt books.

Get ahead of the crowd and pick up your badge the day before the event begins - open 9am - 5pm.

For the first time, sponsors also have access to their meeting rooms for a full extra day. All sponsor passes and meeting room keys will be available for pick up from the Networking Concierge Desk from 9am



In this behind-closed-doors session with the BBC's Security Correspondent, Frank Gardner, you can get the lowdown on what is happening geopolitically across the globe, and ask questions that are useful to your business planning. Pre-register here!